Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I was a little disappointed in the sharpness of my photos taken with the 70-200mm/2.8 with a 1.7 teleconverter attached. It was the first time I used the teleconverter, and I guess it's going to take some practice. I hope the major issue was that I forgot to disable the vibration reduction feature on the lens when using a tripod.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Thursday, September 23, 2010

I'm wondering about the best way to manage filters. I am concerned about lugging around a roll of gaffers tape, and I have some concerns about using tape to secure anything to my lenses. I already have some vignetting with my 70-200, so I don't know about standard screw on fiters or holders for neutral density filters. I assume I should get the thinest base I can for screw on filters and use only one at a time, but I don't know how to best approach attaching neutral density filters

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

I was really hoping to find an answer in this reading assignment. All the advice on clothing and being able to vent without removing clothing was great; then Fitzharris came to 'Hands'.

I understand that shooting bare handed is the most practical solution when there are frequent opportunities to warm your hands, but most of my winter photography experience is sports related. I was anxiously awaiting a solution when the action is non-stop. I admit, Ive tried the glove liners and the convertible finger gloves, and other solutions unsuccessfully. I've also studied other photographers at football and soccer games, and no one seems to have a good solution. Surely, there's an option out there somewhere that doesn't result in either missed opportunities or frostbite.

I hope to invest in a super telephoto lens, and I expect that, if I do, one will have to do me for a long time. Even after seeing the lenses Dave brought to class on Tuesday, and after reading the Super-Telephoto Lenses chapter in out text, I'm still not sure which lens to target.

I'm a Nikon shooter. My primary camera body is full frame D700, but my 2 back up cameras are D90's (DX). I'm confused on whether to shoot for the 400mm/f2.8 or the 500mm/f4. If it's the 400, should I stick with the prime f2.8 or consider the new 200-400/f4 zoom with VRll

Sunday, August 29, 2010

The textbook we will be using for ART247 is The National Audubon Society Guide to Nature Photography, Digital Edition, Authored by Tim Fitzharris.

My view, after reading only the Introduction, Basic Kit, and Tripod sections, is that it's going to be pretty informative. I found the info on extension tubes, teleconverters, and filters imteresting, and I hope we get more into more detail on that equipment in class. I also liked the shooting information that accompanied the images. Equipment and settings used is very helpful. Most of the images in the sections covered to date were captured with equipment in the $20k range. They are really nice images, but it might be more inspiring if these beautiful images were captured with more affordable equipment.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I saw a Yellowstone wolf image in National Geogrphic by Jeff Vanuga and thought I'd check out his website for tomorrow's assignment. His portfolio at http://www.jeffvanugaphotography.com/ for wildlife and and western images were good, and he apparently offers 5 day 'photo tours' at a 300k acre Wyoming ranch, but promo looks a bit overdone, and at $3,795, a bit pricy for me...maybe for others as well, since the tour page hasn't been updated for a while and still has 2008 tours 'coming soon'. I would like to know if there's not a more economical way to photograph horses in the wild.

Anyway, I was more taken by a couple of the images in Mr. Vanuga's People portfolio...one of a Shoshone Indian dancer and another entitled Samburu 13. The were impressive.